Snowman
by Star24
Summary: Max and Logan and a snowman make for some winter fun...


**Snowman** by Star24

Disclaimer: Don't own any of it - this is just for fun. Dark Angel and its characters are ©2001-02 Twentieth Century Fox. Original situations and stories contained herein are ©2002 Star24

_This is a response to a Cape Haven challenge to write a fiction including a snowman and Max and Logan. Takes place sometime S1. Shipper fluff._

Max hated snow. Hated its coldness and whiteness and blankness. Hated the way it turned to gray slush that splashed up onto her and soaked her as she rode her bike through Seattle delivering packages. But most of all she hated the memories it brought back. Memories of searchlights and tazers and dogs and guns. Memories of crashing through the ice into subzero water. Memories of separation from the only family she had ever known up until then. No, there was definitely nothing at all good about snow. 

Seattle was experiencing a blizzard and she had been out in it all day. Now, just when she was on her way home, planning on getting dry and warm, Logan was blowing up her pager. She was in a bitchy mood when she pushed open the door to his place, and then, slammed it behind her with a satisfying bang.

"Whatever happened to catlike stealth?" Logan grinned at her as she rounded the corner into his computer room. He looked disgustingly dry and warm and unbothered by the nasty white stuff outside.

"Catlike stealth went out when you dragged me over here in this mess, instead of letting me go home and curl up with a good book in front of a fire," she snapped.

"Since when do you have a fireplace? And you read?" He was unfazed by her nastiness, continuing to grin like an idiot.

"I read. And I didn't say fireplace. I said fire."

"Oh okay," raising his eyebrow, he held out a peace offering, a steaming cup of hot chocolate complete with whipped cream piled high on top. Without a word Max took it from him and wrapped her icy hands around the warm mug.  Closing her eyes a moment, she savored the rich chocolate scent rising from the cup, and then she brought it to her lips and carefully took a sip.

Logan gulped as he watched the expression on her face turn to one of bliss as the rich warm liquid slid down her throat. When she lowered the mug a whipped cream mustache remained on her upper lip, and she reached out her tongue and licked it off causing Logan to have instant fantasies of that same tongue doing interesting things...

"Ahhh. Okay for that I'll partially forgive you."

"What?" Logan jumped guiltily at her words and then recovered quickly when he noticed the strange look she was giving him. He smiled back at her, and raised his own mug of hot chocolate to take a drink, buying time to recover.

"So what's the crisis this time? You can't seriously be expecting me to go out on a save the world mission in this. Any self respecting bad guy is gonna be holed up somewhere nice and warm."

"Actually there is no mission. I just thought that since the city's pretty much closed down, and I know your roommate's away, that you might want to spend tonight somewhere that had a reasonable chance of being dry and warm.  This building has its own emergency heating system - when the power goes at least we get to stay warm."

"Damn it Logan, now I can't be mad at you." Max glared at him, annoyed that he had taken away her excuse to lash out at him. Snow really did put her in a bad mood which was why she had planned on staying home alone tonight. But the thought of going back out into the cold and wet wasn't appealing. Especially now with the aroma of something delicious seeping into her consciousness. "What are you cooking?" she looked at him with suspicion.

Logan grinned "Just one of my ordinary culinary miracles. Why don't you go and take a hot shower while I finish it up?"

The mention of hot and shower in the same sentence did her in, and with a sigh, Max succumbed to her fate. She headed off to make use of Logan's luxurious bathroom, while Logan headed into the kitchen to finish off their dinner.

Later, dinner finished, they sat together companionably in the living room. As Logan had predicted, the power was gone and the light was provided by candles.  Without electricity there was no television to watch and no music to listen to, and Max was getting restless. She rose and wandered over to look out the window at the white world down below. 

"It looks beautiful doesn't it?" Logan's husky voice next to her made her jump.

"Oh yeah right,"Max mocked.  "If ya like cold and wet."

"You really don't like snow?" Logan was curious.

"Try running drills in it until you can't even feel your feet or hands. Try standing at attention in it as punishment for some infraction, for hours at a time. Try escaping through it dressed in a hospital gown, barefoot. Then ask me about liking snow."

Logan sat and looked at her for a moment, brow wrinkled in thought. Then he smiled, "I'll be right back."  

Max shrugged and continued to stare out the window lost in her thoughts.  She was brought back to reality by something hitting her back, and she turned to see a fur lined parka lying on the floor and Logan grinning at her like an idiot.

"What in the world?"

"Put it on. And the boots and gloves." A pair of fur lined boots sat on the floor next to heavy gloves. "They should fit well enough. I keep some on hand just in case," he explained in response to her unanswered question. 

She realized that he had donned a similar parka and his feet were encased in boots. A pair of thick gloves was on his lap.

"Logan if you think I'm going out in that..."

"Wimp."  He was already at the door of the apartment.

She stood there a moment open mouthed and then, realizing that he was leaving, with or without her, she sighed and pulled on the boots and parka.  She grabbed the gloves and caught him just as the elevator doors were about to close.

They were silent until the reached the lobby doors.  

"How are you going to get around out there in this?" Max questioned. 

"We aren't going all that far, think you're strong enough to push me?" Logan's eyes twinkled with a challenge.

Max snorted, then took hold of the back of his chair and began to shove it through the deepening snow.  The snow was still falling gently and despite the lack of power and streetlights, the white coating on the ground gleamed softly.  Logan directed Max to a small park about half a block away. 

"So now what?" Max grumbled when he motioned her to stop. 

"Now we have fun."

"Logan Cale, you are certifiable. You dragged me out in this as your idea of fun?"

"Max you obviously missed an important element of your education and I intend to remedy that."  Logan reached down and grabbed a handful of snow which he proceeded to pack into a solid ball.  Dropping it into his lap, he added more handfuls until it reached the size of a basketball. Then he motioned Max over and handed it to her.  "Start rolling that on the ground."

"You are a whack job." Despite her protests Max began to roll the snowball around on the ground watching it gain in size as she did so.  "How long do I do this?" she demanded.

"Keep going."

Logan made her roll the snowball around until it reached roughly three feet in diameter, then he allowed her to stop. 

"Uh, Logan? Have we had enough fun yet? 'Cause to tell you the truth this isn't much better than Manticore parade ground drills."

"Max, we haven't even started yet. Trust me. Here." Logan tossed another snowball at her and with a groan she proceeded to roll it around. This time he let her stop sooner.

"Okay now put it on top of the first ball."

"Is there some purpose to this?"

Logan shot her a mock frown, "Curiosity killed the cat."

"So did being cold and wet."

"Here, last one." He tossed one more snow ball at her and she quickly rolled it to a size he deemed acceptable, and then at his instructions stacked it on top of the first two.  

"Nice work, Max. You definitely have magic hands."

Max stared at him, wondering if she had heard the innuendo in his tone correctly. His eyes were innocent as her met her gaze, and she decided she had been around Kendra too much.  This was Logan for gods sake, not some hormone charged specimen she'd met in Crash. 

"Push me closer to him." Logan instructed her. Max shrugged her shoulders and shoved Logan's chair next to the stack of snow. He pulled a canvas bag around from the back of his chair and reaching in, handed her two slices of cucumber keeping a carrot for himself.

"So now what? We eat salad in the freezing cold?"

"His eyes, Max." Logan reached up and stuck the carrot into the middle of the top snowball. Max took the cucumber slices and stuck them above it. Suddenly the sight of the stacked snowballs with a carrot sticking out of the middle of the...face, and the cucumbers as eyes struck her and she giggled.

"What's so funny?"

"I dunno--for some reason he reminds me of Normal." She didn't even realize she was now calling the pile of snow 'him'. Before Logan realized what she intended, she grabbed his glasses and stuck them over the cucumbers.  Tilting her head she regarded her creation critically. "The glasses aren't right but we don't have any others so..."

Without his glasses the world was a soft blur, but Logan didn't care. Max giggling like a little girl was enough to make up for it. Getting into the spirit he reached into his bag and pulled out a strip of red pepper. 

"Here's the mouth."

Max took it from his hand and gleefully shaped it into an open mouth. "Can't you just hear him saying bip bip bip? What else is in your magic bag?"

Logan let her dive into it, and she came up in triumph with a broken headset that he had forgotten was in there.  He had also brought an old scarf, and showed her how to use branches broken from nearby bushes to give their creation arms. Soon 'Normal' was happily waving, headset on, and an old slab of wood Max had found under a bench doubling as a clipboard.  

Max stood back regarding their creation proudly, and Logan grinned as he prepared his final surprise for her. 

"Max."

"Yeah?"

"There's one more thing about snow. Besides building snowmen, I mean."

"Oh yeah?" she stood head cocked to the side hands on hips. Seconds later she spluttered in shock as he hit her square in the chest with the snowball he had made while she finished up the snowman. "Why you.. you..." Another snowball hit her and she ducked to the side reaching down to pick up her own handful of snow. In minutes they were in the midst of a full fledged snowball fight.  Max had the advantage of motion, but Logan had made a supply of ammunition while she built the snowman so he peppered her with a steady stream of snowballs as she ducked and hurriedly made ones to retaliate with.

Finally his supply ran out, and Max took advantage of the fact to advance on him with handfuls of snow at the ready. Before she could fling them at him he grimaced in pain and doubled over. 

Snow forgotten, Max rushed to him, "Logan, are you okay? What's wrong?" She knelt in the snow next to his chair and reached out for his hands. 

Next thing she knew, cold snow was running down the inside of her parka as Logan raised mischievous eyes to meet hers.

Max reached to the side of the chair and grabbed a handful of snow but when she tried to stuff it down Logan's back, the chair overbalanced and they found themselves in a tangle on the ground. Logan was on top of Max and their faces were only inches apart. Max felt her breath catching as she met his eyes which were sparkling with mirth and something else.  She could feel his warm breath on her face and realized that their lips were only inches apart. For what seemed like forever they lay there staring at each other, and then Logan broke the silence. 

"You're gonna have to help me up."

Max felt an odd sense of disappointment, but she shimmied out from under him, and then righted the chair and helped him back into it.  

"We better get inside. Your nose is turning blue," Logan teased.

Max smiled at him "Yours too."  She reached out and pulled his glasses off of the snowman and handed them to him.  As he took them their hands brushed, and she felt a spark of electricity even through their thick gloves.  

"So, Max?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you think of snow now?"

Their eyes met and Max smiled softly at him. "Guess it isn't so bad sometimes."

Logan smiled back at her. As the two headed back to the warmth of Logan's apartment it almost seemed as if the snowman was smiling at them.


End file.
